California Dreaming

With the announcement of John Peschong as John McCain's regional campaign manager for California (McCain has a weird notion of splitting his campaign out among a bunch of different regional managers) I can only assume he's throwing the state:

Peschong has been a campaign adviser since 2007. He has a large amount of experience in California, having served as GOP executive director there in the 1990s and recently as Northwestern political director for the Republican National Committee in 2004. He was also executive director of Dan Quayle's political action committee.

What kind of record is that? He went from Dan Quayle's pack to presiding over the destruction of the once-dominant California Republican Party! Or did he do it in the other order? Either way, this seems like failing upward. Or maybe he's just failing sideways.

Comments

He also manned the ticket window at the Dan Quayle museum!

http://www.quaylemuseum.org/

959 visitors to their website and counting!

Posted by steve duncan | April 14, 2008 4:53 PM

Either way, this seems like failing upward.

Hello? He's a Republican...
.

Posted by Grand Moff Texan | April 14, 2008 5:10 PM

Steve, with any luck your link will get them over the hump to 1000 visitors!

Posted by Clark | April 14, 2008 5:30 PM

He was also executive director of Dan Quayle's political action committee.

He went from Dan Quayle's pack...

Is the reference to a vice-presidential "pack" an unintentional misspelling or an intentional pun?

Posted by phensley | April 14, 2008 6:40 PM

I must say, I was worried that McCain doesn't have the savvy to run a large organization. This is actually a good sign. Maybe I'll vote for him after all.

Posted by Martin | April 14, 2008 6:44 PM

Maybe Marc got the story wrong and this guy will just be the Assistant to the Regional Manager.

Posted by Dave C | April 14, 2008 8:49 PM

MY: Dude, would you shut the fuck up? The GOP can hear you, you know.

Posted by jhupp | April 14, 2008 9:35 PM

Leaving aside the issue of staff for a moment, I wonder what McCain thinks he'll use to compete in California besides Schwarzenegger. Sure, a large part of the state is red, but in areas where most of the people live, if memory serves correctly, it's very expensive to compete. Bush spent $20 million in California in 2000 and lost by eleven points. He did a little better in 2004, although I don't know how much he spent. But assuming that his fund raising abilities and those of Obama stay roughly where they are, how in the world is he supposed to compete? Even if he decides to try to buy some free media by making several trips to the state, every day he spends there means that he has to spend one more day away from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, and other swing states.

Maybe I don't understand California politics as well as others. Maybe McCain really is the type of guy that put the state in play for the Republicans. Yet, something inside me tells me that if he is within striking distance a week or two before the election, it'll either be a bloodbath for Obama and the Democrats or one upside down election with all sorts of unusual states in play.

Posted by Brian | April 14, 2008 10:44 PM